How Do BFS and DFS Help Find the Shortest Paths in Graphs?

BFS and DFS are two important ways to explore graphs. But they both have some tough spots when it comes to finding the shortest paths:

• BFS (Breadth-First Search):

  • Good things: It can always find the shortest paths in graphs that don’t have weights.
  • Not-so-good things: It can use a lot of memory, especially in big graphs.
  • What to do: Try using methods like iterative deepening or bidirectional BFS to make it work better.

• DFS (Depth-First Search):

  • Good things: It saves space and uses less memory than BFS.
  • Not-so-good things: It doesn’t always find the shortest paths, especially when the graph has weights.
  • What to do: Pair DFS with other methods like Dijkstra's algorithm for graphs with weights.